Art of electroplating.



No. 645,786. Pafented Mar. 20, I900. w. Y. BUCK.

ART OF ELEGT ROPLATING.

. (Application filed July 15, I899.) (No Model.)

g 2 M M 7 Y Q x-' k x A9 4 "NrrEo STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM Y. BUCK, OF BRISTOL, CONNECTICUT.

ART OF ELECTROPLATING.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 645,78 6, dated March20, 1900;

Application filed July 15, 1899. Serial No. 728,910. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WVILLIAM Y. BUCK, of Bristol, Hartford county,Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in theArt of Electroplating, which are described in the followingspecification and are illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates in general to the art of electrodeposition ofmetals and to the arrangement and position of the work in the process ofplating by that art. It relates in particular to the exposure of spoons,forks,and other flat ware in the electrolytic bath and to the manner ofholding articles of that kind in the plating-vat. In the plating of suchgoods it is desirable that the deposit instead of bein g of uniformthickness upon all parts of the work should be heavier upon those partswhich are to be exposed to the most wear and lighter upon those partswhich are less exposed. Thus all the outside of the bowl and all thoseparts of the bowl and handle by which a spoon when laid upon its backcomes in contact with a table or other fiat surface upon which it islaid require a thicker and more durable deposit, while for the inside ofthe bowl and for the front side of the handle of a spoon and for thecorresponding parts of a fork or other like article a thinner plating issufficient. If the weight of the deposit upon the first-mentioned partsbe increased to any extent, it is obvious that the durability of theplating in general must be increased in proportion. For the purpose ofobtaining such inequality of deposit these articles have in times pastbeen subjected to a process of sectional plating, so called, whichconsists in first plating by successive operations only those parts ofthe work which require the thickest deposit and in afterward plating bya subsequent operation the whole surface of the work, including theparts plated first. This method, with its repeated cleanings and othertreatments of the work, is both expensive and inconvenient.

It is the object of my invention to produce the desired unequaldistribution of the de-' posit in a convenient and economical manner andwithout any such multiplicity of operations. To accomplish this object,I make use of the same principle upon which a pitcher or other hollowarticle immersed in the bath is plated more heavily without than Withinwhen no precautions are observed for the purpose of equalizing theexternal and the internal deposits. Thesameprinciple,whichhasbeen termedthe principle of shadowing, is illustrated in a greater or less degreewhenever work is unequally sheltered in the bath or is unequally exposedto the action of the sold; tion or is placed near any obstructions notaf fecting all parts of the work alike. To utilize this principle forthe purpose specified, I prefer to employ a holder having two parallelrows of meshes arranged in pairs and adapted to hold pairs of spoons,forks, or the like with their bowls opening toward and near each other.

The best manner in which I have content plated applying the principlesof the invention is shown in said drawings.

Figure 1 is a side view of a holder which is constructed in accordancewith the requirements of those principles. In this figure two spoons areshown in position in the holder. Fig. 2 is an end View of the sameholder with a pair of spoons therein, all in position in anelectroplating-vat. Fig. 3 is a plan of the same holder on an enlargedscale, the handle being cut off on the section-linewosof Fig. 1.

In the views the numeral 1 denotes a horizontal rack constituting thebody of the holder. This rack is formed of. a piece of iron or steelwire doubled at the middle 2, twisted together, and bent into a closed,flat, and generally-rectangular form, as shown in Fig. 3. The oppositeend portions of the rack (denoted by numerals 3) are mere straightcables of this wire twisted together uninten ruptedly, while theopposite sides or edge portions of the rack consist of two duplicatestraight rows of meshes or openings 4, formed by and between untwistedparts or strands 5 of the twisted wire and separated from each other bytwisted portions of the same wire. These openings are at such adistance'apart in their respective rows that the articles held in themcannot touch each other, are of general rectangular or diamond shape,and are of uniform size, large enough to admit the shanks or handles,but not the bowls, of the work and to hold the latter hanging loosely bythe bowls in the positions indicated in Figs. 1 and 2. At the oppositeends of each mesh the strands 5, converging toward twists 6, form witheach other two opposite angles, which are denoted in certain instancesby numerals 7 in Fig. 3. The two remaining internal angles of each meshare indicated by the numerals 21. These meshes being arranged in twoequal rows side by side are also arranged in a number of pairs, each ofwhich has its two members in line with each other across the holder.Thus the two meshes 4 constitute one pair, the meshes 49 another pair,and so on. Back 1 is provided with an electrically-conductive wirehandle 8, which is rigidly united therewith at cables 3 and iselectrically attached thereto by wires 9 and 10, which are soldered 011as braces and supports. Handle 8 has a bend 11, by which the device maybe suspended in the usual manner as a movable conductive hanger. InFigs. 1 and 2 the apparatus is shown hanging from a conductive rod 12,which represents the negative pole of the circuit.

In Fig. 2 the numeral 13 denotes the side walls of a vat containing theplating solution 14, in which the work is suspended. The anodes 15,being plates of silver or other metal, are submerged in the solution ata convenient distance from the work on opposite sides of the holder,being suspended by hooks 16, which are in electrical contact with acopper strap 17, representing the positive pole of said circuit.

The work, which is represented by the spoons 18, is placed in the holderby inserting the handles 19 in the several meshes 4 from above and bypermitting them to descend therein till the bowls 20 are stopped bycontact with the meshes. When the work is so placed in the positionshown, those articles which occupy a single pair of meshes as, forexample, those in meshes 4 or in meshes IS-assume positions of slightinclination and rest in angles 7 with the bowls 20 of each pair neartogether and opening toward each other, as plainly shown in Fig. 2.Under the same circumstances the handles 19 are swung out a littletoward the anodes 15, while the backs of the bowls and handles areturned directly toward those plates. All these conditions remainundisturbed when the holder is agitated in the bath, being maintained bythe tendency of the work to retain by its own weight the positionindicated. On the passage of cur rent through the solution in the usualmanner while the work is suspended in this position the heaviest platingis deposited upon the back side of the handle 19 and the outside of thebowl 20, while the inside of the bowl and the front side of the handle,being protected both by their own form and by their relative location,receive a considerably-thinner deposit. It is the peculiar advantage ofthis invention that it dispenses with all eittraneous means of shadowingthe work and causes each piece of the work to shadow each other piece ofthe same pair. Out of twentyeight grains of silver deposited upon ateaspoon I have in this way caused seventeen grains to be placed uponthe back side of the spoon,while only eleven grains were deposited uponthe front side. In that instance the work was continually agitated byswinging in the vat in the usual manner; By dispensing with thevat-motion this inequality of deposit may readily be much increased.

The same improvement in the art of electroplating may be practiced bythe use of other means and instrumentalities for supporting the work,yet the described holder, besides being adapted to operate as described,possesses these incidental advantages: that, being composed of wire, itpresents to the action of the solution but a small percentage of thepermissiblecathodesu rface and receives upon itself but a minimum of thedeposit; that, holding the work only by the edges of the bowls, itproduces none of those lines or objectionable markings which arecommonly produced by wiring and by other methods of support, and that,being adapted by reason of the arrangement and the ang'ularity of itsmeshes to hold pieces of work in any of several unchanging positions, itmay be used as a substitute for all of those old frames which arecapable of holding work in any of those positions. This holder as anindependent invention is made the subject of a separate application forLetters Patent filed by me September 22, 1899, under Serial No. 731,286.

Such being my improvement in the art of plating, I claim as myinvention- 1. That improvement in the art of electroplating whichconsists in holding between two anodes in an electrolytic bath twopieces of work facing toward and near each other, and in passing currentfrom the anodes through the plating solution to the work held in thatposition substantially as and for the purpose specified.

2. That improvement in the art of electroplating, as applied to articleshaving convex portions, which consists in holding between two anodes ina plating solution two articles of that kind with their convexitiesprojecting toward said anodes respectively, and in passing currentthrough the solution to the work so held, substantially as and for thepurpose specified.

In testimony whereof I hereunto set my name in the presence of twowitnesses.

WILLIAM Y. BUCK.

Witnesses:

WILLARD EDDY, ELLA. M. OLMSTEAD.

